Gow, DavidNied, A. Conrad2014-03-112014Gow, David W., and A. Conrad Nied. 2014. “Rules from Words: A Dynamic Neural Basis for a Lawful Linguistic Process.” PLoS ONE 9 (1): e86212. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0086212.1932-6203http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:11879633Listeners show a reliable bias towards interpreting speech sounds in a way that conforms to linguistic restrictions (phonotactic constraints) on the permissible patterning of speech sounds in a language. This perceptual bias may enforce and strengthen the systematicity that is the hallmark of phonological representation. Using Granger causality analysis of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)- constrained magnetoencephalography (MEG) and electroencephalography (EEG) data, we tested the differential predictions of rule-based, frequency–based, and top-down lexical influence-driven explanations of processes that produce phonotactic biases in phoneme categorization. Consistent with the top-down lexical influence account, brain regions associated with the representation of words had a stronger influence on acoustic-phonetic regions in trials that led to the identification of phonotactically legal (versus illegal) word-initial consonant clusters. Regions associated with the application of linguistic rules had no such effect. Similarly, high frequency phoneme clusters failed to produce stronger feedforward influences by acoustic-phonetic regions on areas associated with higher linguistic representation. These results suggest that top-down lexical influences contribute to the systematicity of phonological representation.en-USBiologyNeuroscienceCognitive NeuroscienceNeural NetworksNeurolinguisticsMedicineNeurologyCognitive NeurologyNeuroimagingSocial and Behavioral SciencesLinguisticsPhonologyPsycholinguisticsSpeechPsychologyCognitive PsychologyJournal Article2014-03-1110.1371/journal.pone.0086212